Three of the most popular tools on the scene have been updated to be fully compatible with the iPhone 3GS: The Dev Teams software unlock - ultrasn0w, their jailbreak software - redsn0w (via torrent for Windows, Mac, Linux), and saurik's popular iPhone theming tool, Winterboard (via Cydia).

So it looks like purplera1n forced the Dev Team to respond by finally releasing their jailbreak software. Good news for all of you iPhone 3GS owners out there today, now you have two jailbreak solutions for your iPhone 3GS. Which will you choose?

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Reader comments

From what I've seen from the videos, purplera1n didn't require you to do anything but plug in your device. All the button pushing the Dev Team requires makes me nervous. I'd go with puruplera1n if I decided to jailbreak.

Ok, just upgraded in cydia, then installed Winterboard. Selected reboot device once it finished.
It looked like it was going to reboot, but it never did. I turned the phone on manually it shows the apple logo then turns off again. Interesting, looks like ill be restoring when i get home..... Any one else had this problem??

LOL @ JungleBoogie ... it was a lot faster with purplerain so im keeping that on my 3GS ... now correct me if im wrong but that makes it now no difference between purplerain and ultrasnow aside from how long it takes to unlock (from a UI point of view, not the coding process etc)

works just fine with me. I use purplera1n which is the easiest unlock that i have ever use. the dude definitely deserves a donation. Also, ToneFX doesn't work with the 3gs. Causes springboard to crash and go into safe mode. Just giving you guys a heads up

hold the top power button and the home button at the same time for 10 seconds (you should see a flash), and then release the power button and keep holding the home button for ten more seconds. This does a MASTER RESET. your phone will be COMPLETELY blank. That's when you download the 3.0 update from itunes and do a system restore (or do it before just in case). THIS SHOULD BE YOUR LAST RESORT.

@Ditharia
Thats what I've done in the past, but never with a new update right around the corner with something I actually want on the phone.. I guess I just don't want to get used to backgrounder and catagories again, then the update come and take that away, and have to wait for the next break..(I think I just talked myself into waiting, as I can't imagine after 3.1, there will be any big updates for awhile)

@d.allen
Oh, i understand. Geez, that's a bummer. well, my friends all have email accounts on their phones, so thats why i don't see a big lost. But from your point of view, thats a hard decision to make lol

@Ditharia
Yeah, my friends are holding me back, so is the lady friend, most of them don't have email available on their phones(for that quick pic send), so, surprisingly MMS would actually be useful to me. I'll be pissed at ATT if I wait for 3.1 and they remove the MMS feature cause its not ready yet.. lol. Thanks for the help.

what I want to know is if this will delete all my stuff. I have currently jailbroken with purplera1n and I want to get a working winterboard. I was very happy when purplera1n didn't delete my crap, but when winterboard did not work and craped out. Anyone know if winterboard will work with purplera1n yet or if the dev teams release will not delete my stuff.

No, I can't get keyboard themes to work... never tried before though.
Guessing saurik needs to add a few more tweeks to winterboard. He had lots of work to do, so there's no surprise it's not perfect.
Hat's off to saurik for all his hard work.

Is there any advantage to running redsnow over purplera1n? I have purplera1n right now but cannot get any of the messaging quick reply programs to work (i.e. irealsmsquick, mysms, etc.). Do these work with the redsnow jb or is this another 3gs/3.0 recode issue?

To everyone who can't boot after they installed winterboard and jailbroke with purplera1n you need to run purplera1n RC2 and rejailbreak your device. The original purplera1n did not have the patches for winterboard, however the new one does. If you jailbroke using the first purplera1n release and still have a working device, then run the new version without restoring. This will just patch your device and everything will be left as is.

I'm not a jailbreaker, but if I were you I would use software from the Dev Team only because they are the more reputable group and they are known for communicating very well with users about compatibility with OS updates, etc. That's my two cents, although in my experience jailbreaking slowed my phone down and caused major stability issues, now that 3.0 is out I prefer the legit OS.

I jailbroke with purplera1n but seemed to go into safemode every 3 or 4 times I changed something in winterboard. Not a big deal cause was just able to click one of the buttons and it got out of safe mode. But I just restored and decided to wait for 3.1 firmware so I can get MMS and then rejailbreak instead of having to worry about creating an iBrick. Apple should just sell different wallpapers and stuff in the app store cause I think more people would buy it instead of deciding to jailbreak. That's mainly why I like it. Well there is other cool stuff But the majority of people really just want a cool backround.

So where is the best place to go to jailbreak? I've done it before but not with the 3gs yet. What are the major cydia applications that do and do not work. I was upset when I updated to 3.0, now I am more nervous to have more programs not running properly..

Oh I solved my issue with this after not seeing winterboard on the spring board. Problem was that after the first jailbreak I instaled categories which makes folders to keep the apps in. Well I put cydia and winterboard into a folder, which really "hides" the icons from the spring board to a sub folder. after updateing to 3.0 and re jailbreaking I kept installing winterboard and couldn't see the app on my spring baoard. Ok so after reseaching the word "hide" clicked in and so I installed BossPrefs from cydia and there is a section with settings and a "hide Icons" menu... well there it was and there were all the apps I had put into folders with the Category app... so I toggled the ones I was missing back to ON and problem solved I could see my winterboard and apps again.

Have a 3GS 3.0.1 and jailbroke with redsn0w pointing to 3.0. Everything seemed fine and Cydia was there. Then unlocked with ultrasn0w from Cydia. Tried rebooting, but the phone just shows the apple logo for a minute and blanks out. I haven't seen any solutions yet for this problem... Can't get the phone to work at all. Even the PC doesn't recognize it with the USB plugged in...
Mei

okay, so i have a jailborken ipod touch, i just got it for christmas. and i used to have it with cydia and winterboard and all that good stuff, but i accidently deleted everything.. but anyways, when i jailbrake it and put on cydia its fine, but when i try to put winterboard it tells me to reboot, so i do that and normally it is supposed to have the blackra1n guy after the itues and the plug screen, but now it wont show up and no matter how many times i re-do everything as soon as i get to the winterboad installation, it will frigen like crash. someone please help me!(: